Driving Digital Transformation in New Zealand’s Steel Industry with Sana Commerce Cloud
at Steel & Tube

Steel & Tube has serviced the trade, manufacturing and construction industries since 1953. This experience speaks volumes to its knowledge within these industries and sets it apart from competitors. Steel & Tube is now harnessing this experience and applying it to its new e-commerce strategy. The ultimate goal? To satisfy every customers’ needs and improve customer convenience by making the web store a one-stop shop.

Before undergoing digital transformation with Sana Commerce, Steel & Tube knew the importance of improving its online presence and digital strategy and had the ambition to make it happen. Initially, Steel & Tube had created its own web store and was manually connecting data from the store to its ERP (Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012). After hiring a dedicated digital officer, it soon realized that this was an arduous way of working and began strategizing ways to improve its e-commerce strategy.

The e-commerce project revolved around how Steel & Tube could:

• Meet and exceed customer expectations
• Make customers more self-sufficient
• Provide customers with all the information they need to make their purchase
• Improve customers’ overall experience and convenience

These points led to Sana Commerce’s ERP-integrated solution. Mark Malpass, CEO of Steel & Tube, explains why e-commerce is so important within the manufacturing and construction industries:

With COVID-19 causing unprecedented disruption, Steel & Tube knew that it needed a solution that could be implemented quickly. Sana Commerce was able to deliver two new web stores for Steel & Tube, with customizations, within 90 days.

Both web stores run on Sana Commerce version 9.3.5 and are connected in real-time with Microsoft Dynamics AX. These integrated e-commerce stores enable total customer convenience by giving customers one place for product information, custom pricing, invoices, payments and previous purchases — all available 24/7.

Our integrated solution provides a portal for our customers to gain access to our ERP system. They can gather data for themselves that they wouldn’t normally be able to do through a standard web store. Because customers no longer need to call or email to get updates, our new portal saves them, and us, time.

Anthony Excell | E-Commerce Manager at Steel & Tube

The uncertainty caused by COVID-19 forced all companies to think outside the box. This is exactly what Steel & Tube was able to do, thanks to its e-commerce strategy. After implementing Sana Commerce’s solution, Steel & Tube knew that future lockdowns could be an issue. So, it planned a click and collect method, which would enable the company to maintain order fulfillment despite lockdown measures. Steel & Tube’s new e-commerce strategy not only allowed the company to maintain communications and orders with customers during COVID-19 but also enabled it to plan for further disruption.

Steel & Tube is continually improving its online performance. Looking to the future, it is hoping to implement a PIM (Product Information Management) system and upgrade its ERP to Microsoft Dynamics 365, both of which Sana Commerce will be able to accommodate.